Reporters on the Job

December 18, 2006

• The Scents of Delhi: As staff writer Mark Sappenfield reported today's story about reactions to Wal-Mart opening in India, he made note of the fire near Somdutt's packaging store. "Delhi is a city of extremes – 110 degrees F. in the summer and into the 30s at night in winter," he says. "There is hardly a street corner that isn't aflame at dusk. These are modest affairs, just enough for a few people to gather around. Among the more inventive fuels: old wrappers and bicycle tires."

"The fires give Delhi the pleasant wintertime aroma of burning firewood, like an enormous scented candle hung over a city that typically smells of urine, curry, car exhaust, and body odor simultaneously," he says. "But it does have other consequences, highlighted by an electric sign I saw at a Delhi stoplight: "Fine air particulates today: 521 percent [above] safe level."